- UFC 85: WIN OVER HUGHES PUTS ALVES IN CONTENTION

content="Defeating Karo Parisyan is what put American Top Team fighter Thiago Alves in the Top 10 in the world, but on June 7 he has a c">Defeating Karo Parisyan is what put American Top Team fighter Thiago
Alves in the Top 10 in the world, but on June 7 he has a c

Defeating Karo Parisyan is what put American Top Team
fighter Thiago Alves in the
href="http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/topten.asp?articleid=13&zoneid=15">
style='font-family:Arial'>Top 10 in the world, but on June 7 he has a chance to fight former
UFC champion Matt Hughes and possibly place himself as the No. 1 contender for
the title.

Coming off the win over Parisyan at UFC Fight Night 13 in
April, Alves said recently in an interview with
style='font-family:Arial'>MMAWeekly Radio
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> that he had no hesitation at all
stepping up on short notice to face Hughes in the main event of UFC 85 in
England.

“That was perfect timing. I just came from the fight on
April 2 so I was already in shape, so just keep doing the hard work and that’s
it,” said Alves.

“My manager called me and you know ‘they want you to fight
Matt Hughes.’ (Expletive) yeah, I’ll be there! Let me know when. They said
June 7 and that’s perfect timing. I called my conditioning coach, all my
coaches, and I asked them let’s do it.”

What Alves will be facing in Hughes is possibly the most
prolific champion in UFC history, and a fighter who has defeated many top
challengers in the past.

“Matt Hughes is a tough guy,” Alves stated. “He’s the most
dominant welterweight of all time, and I’m really excited. I’ve been seeing
this guy fighting forever, just like Karo (Parisyan), and I can’t wait. It’s
my time, and I’m really excited.”

Many critics of this fight have boiled it down to Hughes’
ability to take the fight to the ground and Alves’ ability to stop the
takedown. The Brazilian understands there’s much more to the fight than that
simple equation.

“No, I wish it was just takedown defense, it would be really
easy. But it’s not like that, it’s an MMA fight so anything can happen,” he commented.
“Of course he’s a wrestler, he’s a grappler guy, so he’s going to try to take
me down. That’s his main thing, I’m pretty sure, same thing as me, I’m going to
try to knock him out. I might try to take him down. I don’t know what I’m
going to do yet.”

If the fight does hit the ground, Alves is confident in his
ground skill, working alongside ground wizards such as Marcello Garcia and
Marcus Aurelio every day at American Top Team.

“I’ve got tons and tons of black belts at American Top Team
and I’m comfortable everywhere,” he said. “We’ve got good grapplers, we’ve got
good strikers, we’ve got good wrestlers.”

If Alves is able to withstand Hughes’ attacks and pick up
the win, many would consider him the top contender in the welterweight
division, waiting for champion Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch to square off
in August.

“I’m hoping to get the winner,” said Alves about the
match-up between St. Pierre and Fitch.